The Office Party
by Carlier36
Summary: After they save St. Nicholas' church, the team celebrates Christmas in their own way.


Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage nor am I associated with Timothy Hutton or Dean Devlin.

**The Office Party**

They had an office party after they saved their patron saint and his church. After all, it was the holidays and it wasn't as if any of them ever spent December with their families. It didn't really start out as an office party; in fact, it started out as Sophie trying to pry a bottle away from Nathan. Eliot looked interested, so Nathan poured him a glass as a bribe. Alec was _almost_ won over by Sophie and her beguiling smiles but Nathan poured him a glass too. Parker refused to get involved, choosing merely to sit on the edge of the desk with a bag of pretzels in her lap watching the antics of four full-grown thieves.

Nathan refused to give up his bottle and Eliot and Alec increasingly agreed with him, so Sophie joined Parker on the desk with the pretzels. Eventually, a bowl was found, the pretzels poured into it and the five of them managed to share relatively like eight-year-olds. They laughed, drank and talked like old friends. In a way, they were.

Sometime around 11:00 they ran out of what little was in the fridge so Eliot and Parker made a 7/11 run. There was one just around the corner and they came back with more pretzels, some sort of guacamole dip, eggnog and mistletoe. The two of them got caught under it while hanging it in the doorway, (Alec never really understood why it took two people to hang a sprig of fungus), and disappeared for the rest of the night into Parker's office.

Alec fell asleep watching _Golden Girls_ with a jug of orange soda on one knee and a bag of potato chips on the other. Nate and Sophie spent the night on the couch, talking quietly and reminiscing about 'the times they never spoke of' as Parker had deemed their early years as insurance cop and grifter, good guy and bad girl.

---

Parker sighed, groaned and unwillingly opened her eyes. Expertly, she scanned the room. _Box of personal items she had yet to distribute… clothes strewn on the chairs, the lamp and the doorknob… a naked Eliot…_ Oh right. 7/11, mistletoe. The impromptu office party rushed back to her. Eliot shifted beside her on the desk as he pulled himself from what she assumed was probably a violent dream. A slow smile spread across his face as he lifted his head to rest on a fist.

"Hey there," he murmured, feeling ridiculous and wondering why it didn't bother him.

"Hey there." Somehow Parker's sounded more dignified and sultry. "God, I should have gotten an office years ago," she added as she agilely flipped herself over onto him.

Nate and Sophie woke to the disturbing laughter sneaking out from the office marked Parker Krook, (Alec had been unable to pry a first or last name from her so he made up something stupid.) His fingers were tangled in her messy hair and he had that hungover glaze in his eyes but there were sleepy smiles exchanged.

Eventually everyone made it out, dressed and awake, to the main office. Between yawns they realized Alec was gone. A crash brought them all running out to the lobby where they found the hacker in question covered in pine needles beneath a rather sad-looking Christmas tree. Parker snickered and Eliot covered a laugh with a cough but everyone except Nate, who couldn't move that fast due to the hangover, rushed over to help. The poor tree was stood up in the corner of the room and Alec helped to his feet.

"What the hell are you doing?" Eliot asked, once man and tree were upright.

"Hey, I found a little cash lying around - okay, don't look at me like that, it was in Nate's pocket, we're all thieves, be nice – and I thought this place needed a little holiday sprucing-up," Alec explained in the form of protest.

Sophie shrugged. "I agree. There's no reason we can't have a little cheer. We should get some decorations for it too."

"Taken care of!" Alec grinned. "There's a box out in the hall with, well, some tinsel and ornaments from that big ugly tree across the street."

Eliot high-fived him while Parker skipped out to bring in said box. They exchanged cheap gifts and wore Santa hats and took stupid pictures in front of the tree. It was the best holiday any of them had spent in years.


End file.
